Uyghur Policy Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mrs. KIM of California. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in support of my bill, H.R. 4785, the Uyghur Policy Act.
I thank Chairman Ami Bera of the Subcommittee on Asia, The Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation for leading this with me, as well as the 79 bipartisan cosponsors--Ms. Sara Jacobs from California being one of them. They all made consideration of this important bill possible.
The Uyghur Policy Act comes at a critical time as the world is seeing past the Chinese Communist Party's censorship filters and sharing videos of thousands of people in China standing up and speaking out against strict lockdowns and against the CCP.
Since Xi Jinping solidified his rule during the Communist Party Congress last month, anti-lockdown protests have erupted all over China, including in Xinjiang, where at least 10 people under COVID lockdown were killed in an apartment fire with their doors locked from the outside.
The people of China are waking up to the CCP's oppression and are demanding basic freedoms. Whether it is lockdown of protestors in Shanghai, or Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, the United States must show through words and through actions that we will have their backs in their fight against the CCP's tyranny.
The People's Republic of China continues to deny carrying out genocide against the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, and we have verified reports of forced sterilization, forced labor, brainwashing, and gang rape in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The Uyghur Policy Act will help us lead from a position of strength and will address several shortcomings in our existing approach to responding to these human rights abuses. It authorizes the State Department to appoint a special coordinator for Uyghur issues, which will consolidate the State Department's diplomatic strategy to ensure that department-wide resources being used to respond to the Uyghur genocide are better coordinated.
H.R. 4785 will also mandate Uyghur language instruction at the Foreign Service Institute and require the State Department to station a Uyghur-fluent officer at Mission China locations.
The bill also authorizes support for Uyghur human rights activists and directs the U.S. Agency for Global Media to disseminate news and information regarding Uyghur genocide.
We must act now to leverage U.S. soft power, garner international support for Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, and equip the State Department with the tools it needs to better respond to Xi Jinping's genocidal campaign.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding me time.
I am especially grateful that she has introduced the Uyghur Policy Act, which is particularly timely given the mass spontaneous protests we see arising in China.
It is particularly pertinent, given that the spark for the popular demands for freedom was a horrific incident that occurred in Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where due to Xi Jinping's draconian zero-COVID lockdown policy, at least 10 people were burned to death with many, many more injured.
The bill follows, I would point out, upon an amendment that I had offered at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs markup on June 30, 2021, to the EGLE Act that called for the creation of a special envoy for the Xinjiang region. Such focus is particularly necessary, given the amount of repression directed by the Chinese Communist Party at the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Central Asian people, including the Kazakhs and the people from Kyrgyzstan.
Xi's genocide--and it is Xi Jinping's genocide; he is directly responsible for this. We know that there are recordings of him saying, ``show no mercy,'' as people are being dragged into concentration camps, as my two previous colleagues pointed out. Forced abortion, forced sterilization, and a whole host of human rights abuses are being committed each and every day, right up to this very moment, and it shows no signs of abatement.
In short, this bill is timely. I believe it is necessary, and I urge my colleagues to give its strongest support.
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Mrs. KIM of California. Mr. Speaker, seeing no other Members on my side, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I again thank Asia Subcommittee Chairman Ami Bera, Speaker Pelosi, my colleague, Representative Smith, and the many cosponsors who helped bring this legislation to the floor.
I am pleased that the House of Representatives, in the spirit of bipartisanship, is taking a significant step in defending the human rights of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities subject to the CCP's oppression and genocide.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting ``yes,'' and I urge the Senate to immediately take up this critically important legislation.
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